Baseball @ Wright State

jetz · May 01, 2012, 08:00:26 AM

Gigantic series this weekend in Dayton. As I write this, Valpo has the fifth longest winning streak in the country at seven games. We have a date at Notre Dame (also 22-20) tomorrow night, then head to Dayton Thursday afternoon. In the series at Valpo, WSU swept all three games by a combined total of four runs. We simply didn't hit, and didn't put any pressure on their defense. We're one game back of the Raiders for the HL lead, and I like our chances to win this series. Let's go get it!

jetz · May 01, 2012, 04:58:17 PM

Honorable mention on College Baseball Insider for their team of the week last week...

http://www.collegebaseballinsider.com/TOW/TOW120501.html

valpotx · May 02, 2012, 03:07:01 AM

Congrats as always guys! Huge series, and hopefully we come away with at least two to put our seeding in our own hands!

jetz · May 02, 2012, 07:50:40 AM

This has been rumored for a while, but is now official. Butler will leave for the Atlantic 10 Conference in 2013-14 in all sports. Bad news for the Horizon League. For baseball, it means only five current member schools. You must have six for your conference to get an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. We need to go shopping or move to a new neighborhood...

http://espn.go.com/college-sports/story/_/id/7879598/butler-bulldogs-join-atlantic-10-conference-all-sports-source-says?fb_action_ids=10150799605216726%2C4088592132555%2C3871091979245&fb_action_types=news.reads&fb_ref=fb_opengraph&fb_source=other_multiline

Valpo1b · May 02, 2012, 08:51:19 AM

Quote from: jetz on May 02, 2012, 07:50:40 AMThis has been rumored for a while, but is now official. Butler will leave for the Atlantic 10 Conference in 2013-14 in all sports. Bad news for the Horizon League. For baseball, it means only five current member schools. You must have six for your conference to get an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. We need to go shopping or move to a new neighborhood...

Don't be surprised if some of the Summit League schools apply to join. IPFW would fit in geographically, and it would significantly reduce their travel expenses. Plus, I believe ORU is leaving the Summit, so IPFW would be motivated to leave themselves. Oakland might also want to join.

valpotx · May 02, 2012, 10:58:27 AM

Oakland will definitely want to join, and is the most logical program to not be a really big drop-off in all sports. IPFW and IUPUI will not bring what the HL wants in all sports. They would be another YSU in the conference. Their main programs no longer have Dane Fife or Ron Hunter, who kept them competitive. We need to be more creative and look into some OVC program interest.

valpo04 · May 02, 2012, 02:10:04 PM

Quote from: jetz on May 02, 2012, 07:50:40 AM
This has been rumored for a while, but is now official. Butler will leave for the Atlantic 10 Conference in 2013-14 in all sports. Bad news for the Horizon League. For baseball, it means only five current member schools. You must have six for your conference to get an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. We need to go shopping or move to a new neighborhood...

http://espn.go.com/college-sports/story/_/id/7879598/butler-bulldogs-join-atlantic-10-conference-all-sports-source-says?fb_action_ids=10150799605216726%2C4088592132555%2C3871091979245&fb_action_types=news.reads&fb_ref=fb_opengraph&fb_source=other_multiline

This point was specifically mentioned during the HL conference call today. It was confirmed that the HL would have 2 years from the 13-14 season to get back to 6 members before the automatic bid would be lost.

okinawatyphoon · May 02, 2012, 08:39:16 PM

Valpo beats Notre Lame 7-4!

valpotx · May 02, 2012, 10:02:54 PM

Great victory for our first win versus ND since we beat them when they were #1 in 2001! We have peaked at the right time, and hopefully carry this momentum into WSU!

jetz · May 03, 2012, 07:59:58 AM

Quote from: valpo04 on May 02, 2012, 02:10:04 PM

This point was specifically mentioned during the HL conference call today. It was confirmed that the HL would have 2 years from the 13-14 season to get back to 6 members before the automatic bid would be lost.

Thanks for that info. Does that include the 2013-14 season? In other words, if we stayed at five baseball schools (which I'm sure won't happen), would we lose the auto bid at the end of '15 or '16?

vu72 · May 03, 2012, 09:51:45 AM

Quote from: jetz on May 03, 2012, 07:59:58 AM
Quote from: valpo04 on May 02, 2012, 02:10:04 PM

This point was specifically mentioned during the HL conference call today. It was confirmed that the HL would have 2 years from the 13-14 season to get back to 6 members before the automatic bid would be lost.

Thanks for that info. Does that include the 2013-14 season? In other words, if we stayed at five baseball schools (which I'm sure won't happen), would we lose the auto bid at the end of '15 or '16?

In 13-14 the conference will still have the necessary number. It is two year after that when it comes into question. So, that aall means we will have three years from the end of this season to find another member.

VULB#62 · May 03, 2012, 10:33:05 AM

Don't you mean 12-13 the HL will have the full number? Butler is out of here 13-14. Regardless you are correct - three years from the end of this season.

jetz · May 05, 2012, 09:15:25 PM

OK, they're decent. Almost as good as we are. We beat them in games one and two. Game one it actually showed on the scoreboard and in game two we beat them every which way but the final score. We stranded nine and did not score with the bases juiced and nobody out in the eighth only to lose 3-2. Wild was at about a 7 out of 10 as compared to his usual 9 on my scale but still battled well enough to win--we just failed to get the big hit on multiple occasions.

A must win tomorrow to take the series. We absolutely own their closer, so they are in a bind when it comes to finishing. Just need to go out and play like we have and we'll win. I'm not a fan of WSU or their fans. We need the win, but they do swing the bat well and we have to match that offensively. We just didn't do it today. GO VALPO!

vu72 · May 06, 2012, 02:44:41 PM

Great win today and back in a first place tie! Six games to go with all of ours at home and all of WSU's games on the road. We play YSU and UIC while the Raiders play YSU and third place Milwaukee. I like our chances!! GO VALPO!!

jetz · May 06, 2012, 06:21:01 PM

We'll take the series win in the biggest baseball series Valpo has played in years. Very solid showing and there can be no doubt that we can win the HL tourney and get the NCAA bid. We really should have had the sweep, and unfortunately, because we lost the season series 4-2, Wright State will get the conference title if we finish with identical records (at least I think that's how it goes--head to head being the first tie breaker). We need to sweep our remaining six conference games and hope that WSU loses somewhere. Great job by a Valpo team that's 19-3 over their last 22. GO VALPO!

valpotx · May 07, 2012, 10:03:12 AM

Awesome job, and hopefully our home advantage over the last 6 games helps us do better than WSU. YSU seems like they have been hit or miss the last few weeks (wins over WSU, UIC, Butler), so they are no longer a given for a W. I would much rather have our other 3 games be against UIC than at Milwaukee, so I like our chances of gathering our 4th championship this year! We definitely have proven that we can get to the NCAA tournament this year, as we showed that we can play with/better than the other top team this year.

jetz · May 08, 2012, 11:41:59 AM

Valpo is the College Baseball Insider Central Region team of the week. Way to go VALPO!!

http://www.collegebaseballinsider.com/TOW/TOW120508.html

jetz · May 09, 2012, 07:53:53 AM

Will Hagel was named one of the nation's Primetime Performers on the College Baseball 360 website. Valpo starting to open some eyes at the national level. Let's see if they put us in the projected field of 64 this week. Some of those projections come out today. Wright State has held down the Horizon League spot all year so far, but maybe some writers will now slide Valpo into that spot. It doesn't really mean anything--just gets us a little more recognition on the national scene. 8)